Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
New Rex the Dog Video
Partizan Lab’s Erik Lerner has directed this cute little animated video for one of my favorite artists, Rex the Dog. The song is “I Can See You, You Can See Me.” Rex’s debut album, which may be called “I Can See You, You Can See Me” (at least that’s the title on the drawing of a CD on his MySpace page) The Rex the Dog Show, is out soon.
Of course you remember Rex from his big big song “We Live In Daddy’s Car” from a few years ago, as well as his aural affinity for the KORG 700S synthesizer.
Follow along at his site. There’s even a nice little preview mix and stickers, too, for the faithful. Just sign up for Rexy’s fan club.
Radiohead, but with lasers.
Oh, you know, just another day at the office writing about Radiohead, lasers, and the folks that love them. Last week I talked with James Frost, the director of Radiohead’s new “House of Cards” video. I’m seeing the group play for the first time at All Points West next month; I’ll report back if the stuff from the video is used at all in the live show. It’d be a bit of a shame if it wasn’t; this look is too closely connected to this song to be utilized in a fresh way anywhere else. So Radiohead might as well keep trotting it out with “House of Cards” when they play it live. Come to think of it, as amazing as applying this technology to film the crowd and band during a live performance would be, it’d probably be impossible to render the data in time to produce anything but the crudest preview. But I’m sure you stopped at the link to read Frost say that in our talk and have already ruled out that possibility.
Good thing, too, as who knows whether that LIDAR stuff might cause some impromptu LASIK for audience members, like these dodgy Russian rave lasers.
Meta-WTF?
Oh Wighnomys.
My favorite technarchists from Jena are back with a great mix.
But Metawuffmischfelge? What does that mean? Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask (along with a technical Q):
from Wighnomy Brothers
reply-to Wighnomy Brothers
to nick
date Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 1:59 AM
subject AW: a quick question for Gabor…good morning nick …
i recorded the vinyls but i mixed the hole stuff in the computer!
metawuffmischfelge? it´s a fantasy word!greetings!
robag
…in other news…a cool change at earplug; DJ charts now include bits about the records written by the DJs charting them. And no one knows why dance records work better than those playing them to make people dance. The linked installment is from Justin Simon aka Invisible Conga People (on Italians Do It Better). Don’t confuse him with Mike Simonetti, IDIB’s founder (and I’d say one of the people instrumental in getting those punk kids dancing when he was doing Troubleman). One of my favorite reads, Cosmic Disco, did an interview with Mike and is hosting a guest mix I’ve been enjoying. Check ‘er out.
Making moves, never movies
I can easily award my ‘favorite weekend’ crown to Memorial Day; since the inception of Detroit’s electronic music festival, whatever you might call it (DEMF, Movement, Fuse-In) I’ve been in town catching up with lovely friends and family, hearing amazing artists and stomping around one of the world’s most intriguing cities. I take a little pride in only missing one festival, in 2001, and have seen it go through all sorts of changes. Compared to previous years, 2008 was professional in concept and execution, with Paxahau, the party promotion company which took reins over last year, honing an already strong element of expertise to managing the three-day event. Each year is a little different, but this was on balance one of the best yet, with a huge array of options.
Going Yard
A small group of us stopped by The Yard Sunday for the Sunday Best series and caught King Britt (seen here concentrating) at the party’s second week. The lineup is stellar: Stefan Goldmann, Trusme, Bambaataa, Rick Wilhite & Jerome Derradji, Riton, Kevin Saunderson, Move D, the Wurst guys, Tejada, Pilooski, Joakim, Metro Area. Phew. And that’s only leaving one or two weeks off.
It looks like all Sundays are going to be $8, in which case I’ll be there every weekend I’m in town–the spot, on the banks of the murky Gowanus (which Luis describes as a “disgusting trickle”) is perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon. Cross your fingers it stays off Euro-tourist radar, at least for this year.
First! (and Fifteenth)
In November I was invited to be the lead-off on a new mix series called First and Fifteenth, which has continued unbroken since with guests contributing compilations appearing on those two dates every month.
Here are the jams I selected, including a little Was (Not Was), ELO, Arthur Russell, T-Rex, Johnny Boy and more. I think it was raining and I was a bit contemplative. The next set of songs will be more upbeat, I promise. And have some volume consistency.
Until then, enjoy the twice-monthly selections from guest curators. Get in touch with the email on the site if you’re interested in making some picks or just want the p-word to the most recent mix. Click through to get the code for my mix.
Pas du gurn
From the latest Earplug and Flavorpill:
Artist: Various
Title: Shut Up and Dance! Updated
Label: Ostgut Ton
Release: May 29
Berghain and ballet: at first the terms suggest a pansexual pirouette in the half-light of the Berlin nightspot. In actuality, the Staatsballett Berlin and the club’s Ostgut Ton label have afforded five electronic-music producers a chance to move the crowd in a new way ó through a choreographer. It’s difficult to listen to the unpredictable cultural meld of Shut Up and Dance! Updated and not play armchair Martha Graham. Nsi.’s “Bridge and Tunnel People” moves on the jagged zags of the midrange, at once spasmodic and locked to the beat. Sleeparchive’s unrepentant bareness leaves wide range for the imagination to unfurl, as plodding bass drags against insistent highs. Ame twists on the shimmering “Fiori,” while Luciano treats “Drunken Ballet” to a Senor Coconut-like arrangement, with “ooh ah” vocals and tippy-toe twinkles. Maurizio’s remix of “Drunken Ballet” is slated for a September release; stay tuned to see if the club lifts its “no camera” policy to allow documentation of this exciting union.
I also tipped this small pleasure of mine, Specialten, in the ‘plug;
The 19th issue of Specialten, a DVD survey of current visual culture, has arrived chock full of its usual cornucopia of music, art, and film. Each issue’s packaging, booklet, and exclusive print are commissioned by different designers, allowing for a constantly shifting identity that lifts the content, rather than its container, to the forefront. Issue 19 brings two hours of entertainment, including an interview with seasoned photographer Timothy Saccenti, who has most recently defined the look of Warp Records’ Battles with his album-cover and video shoots; a survey of work by Clemens Kogler, who made a mark with his dry infograph on modern life, “Le Grand Content”; and music videos from Headman, Deerhoof, and Clark, as well as interviews with Junior Boys and Bonde do Role. If your broadband is a-flowin’, check out Specialten’s recent addition, Specialten.TV, a larger net with which the group is culling dynamite online content.
D-E-Mf’ing-M-F
Seven years ago when I went to the first one of these things I never would have expected it’d go through as many changes and still remain a fascinating and terrific event. Through all the names, management disputes, money owed, internal drama, ousters, reconciliations and amplified noise, DEMF remains a hell of a good time.
Slangin’ yayo–it all remains the same…
Another at ArtistDirect.
Cleveland’s most thuggish-ruggish are back–minus a member or two but with plenty of guestsówith what shakes out as a solid effort from a group that many have written off multiple times since their 1995 Grammy-winning smash E 1999 Eternal. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s latest, Strength and Loyalty, sees the brothers at three: Krayzie, Layzie and Wish, without the services of Bizzy (who left the group to pursue solo efforts and battle substance abuse) and Flesh-n-Bone, who went down after breaking his parole in 2000.
Whether or not loyal fans cotton to the chart-climbing lead single, “I Tried” with Akon, or the popular-talent-stacked “Lil L.O.V.E.” produced by Jermaine Dupri and featuring Mariah Carey and Bow Wow, Bone’s soul shines through, strong as ever, in the rest of the album. “Wind Blows” continues in the group’s tradition of choice sampling and collaboration (remember “Home” with Phil Collins on Thug World Order?), plucking liberally from Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” from the intro guitar riff to the thumping chorus and breakdown bassline. Twista guests on “C Town,” a pan-Midwestern paean titled after the group’s native Cleveland. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams stretches out on “Order My Steps” and the brothers wax spiritual, while The Game and Will.I.am lead the gun-clapping rhetoric on “Streets.”
Along with the next two, “9mm” and “Gun Blast,” the meaty middle of the album is the closest the group comes to the dusty hustling that’s classic Bone. From there on, it’s gravy. Swizz Beatz, co-executive producer and Full Circle labelhead, produces the car jam with an acid racing stripe, “Candy Paint,” while “So Good So Right” makes way for a family reunion on a sunny Saturday vibe. The stronger of the two Akon tracks, “Never Forget Me,” closes with its straining chorus. Though it’s far from perfect, Strength and Loyalty leaves us confident that if, as rumored, Bizzy rejoins the group when Flesh is paroled in 2008, the gaps the two would fill could produce a very special album.
Throb on, you crazy diamond
More in the Artist Direct series…
Throbbing Gristle
Part Two: Endless Not
In their heyday in the late ’70s, Throbbing Gristle’s art school audio terrorism became both the quivering flesh foundation and the sheet metal shack around which goth and industrial acts would build their village. TG’s first offering of new music in 25 years, Part Two: Endless Not, expresses little of the abject insanity that endures in their classic albums The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle and D.O.A: The Third And Final Report.
Almost 30 years on, the classic “Hamburger Lady” still can send stomachs lurching, but little on Part Two has such power. “Rabbit Snare” takes on the type of slow jazz done much better by Bohren und der Club of Gore, “Almost a Kiss” is 6:47 of prefab churchyard groaning, and “Endless Not” goes little further than blithe lyrical play and a chug-a-lug beat. High points come in individual contributions from Chris Carter (“Separated”) and Peter Christopherson (“After the Fall”)
